simple low tech nano cube (1 year)

[lil sumpin]

Your corals look happy! That goni !! Do you have a second way to check your phosphate? Just to confirm your first test. Or test before and after your big water change? Just thinking out loud!
Dang I'd be leaving a bad review for whoever sold you that towel! That really stinks and only offer my condolences. I know 0 about glass damage but bright side is its above the water line! If you decide on a new one, if you stay around the same size you have all the gear needed!

Yep! Usually if I get a reading that makes me unsure, I'll pull out the Saliferts and test against those. In this case it was spot on but usually I see a little bit of fluctuation when comparing alkalinity.

That dang towel I tell ya..

 

[lil sumpin]

This little dude has little interest in pellets and flake food; he's always grazing on the rocks and glass but I don't think my pod population is going anywhere.

With this goofy chip on the corner I'm considering upgrading to an AIO cube. Any suggestions and recommendations? Considering Waterbox at the moment..

 

[Landshark34]

This little dude has little interest in pellets and flake food; he's always grazing on the rocks and glass but I don't think my pod population is going anywhere.

With this goofy chip on the corner I'm considering upgrading to an AIO cube. Any suggestions and recommendations? Considering Waterbox at the moment..

I have a Waterbox 20 currently used for freshwater. If you want to put a refugium in the AIO chamber, Waterbox is harder as there is a vinyl film on the back side that does not allow light to penetrate unless you peel it off. However the internal piece of glass separating the display and the aio is smoky black, which will leak light to the display if you lit up any of the aio chambers.

 

[lil sumpin]

Curious what kinda stand you use for your WB 20? Thanks for the tip about the refugium! I think I'd just throw in the reef glass skimmer in there

 

[Landshark34]

Curious what kinda stand you use for your WB 20? Thanks for the tip about the refugium! I think I'd just throw in the reef glass skimmer in there

I just use their WB20 stand lol

 

[lil sumpin]

Ha! So I've been looking at some Innovative Marine AIOs and saw they dont have stands, only pedestals. I guess I got em mixed up

 

[ralquist]

This little dude has little interest in pellets and flake food; he's always grazing on the rocks and glass but I don't think my pod population is going anywhere.

With this goofy chip on the corner I'm considering upgrading to an AIO cube. Any suggestions and recommendations? Considering Waterbox at the moment..

That long polyp toad is to die for!
I don't know but my wrases love nori, eat everything but garlic flavored nori is like freaking cat nip like its upset its in there.

For $100 I don't think you can go wrong with a IM 15g Nuvo but coming from your 14g you would actually lose display room. While writing this I checked on BRS, they went up to $120 but they have a new one I hadn't noticed is a NEW 20g long Nuvo $170 with dual overflows and dual returns. I would have bought this over my 15g 100%, so much more room for activities in the rear!! haha
Now I'm kicking myself!

 

[lil sumpin]

That long polyp toad is to die for!
I don't know but my wrases love nori, eat everything but garlic flavored nori is like freaking cat nip like its upset its in there.

For $100 I don't think you can go wrong with a IM 15g Nuvo but coming from your 14g you would actually lose display room. While writing this I checked on BRS, they went up to $120 but they have a new one I hadn't noticed is a NEW 20g long Nuvo $170 with dual overflows and dual returns. I would have bought this over my 15g 100%, so much more room for activities in the rear!! haha
Now I'm kicking myself!

Yep! Was highly considering this one too but they dont ship out till later in March. Dont kick yourself! Just... start.... another ONE

 

[ralquist]

Yep! Was highly considering this one too but they dont ship out till later in March. Dont kick yourself! Just... start.... another ONE

Dang! Seems like the best deal depending on how much you wanna spend and how comfortable you feel with the chip... Be about a month then? Guess you could preorder, always cancel it if something happens in between. I checked on the IM website, says mid march and the get you with the $30 extra packing. I did the same with BRS, might be an error but it shows an option to have it flat rate shipped $3.99 and be here 2/29/24? And the $30 packing*

Told myself next one will be a big boy, looking at the prices of those though makes me wanna cry. One day in the very distant future, looked at a new vehicle last week and was told to get my a## off fantasy island!

 

[lil sumpin]

I used to have a 20gal long as a teenager. Was a little FOWLR system that I had going for almost 2 years. Had a regular old ocellaris clown, blue chromis and later added a royal gramma. Long story short, the royal gramma was diseased and ended up spreading it and killing the tank. My current fish are adopted from an established reef tank, they are healthy and were flourishing for almost a whole year prior to being put into my system. I chose not to quarantine them but going forward I will observe and quarantine as needed.

I think I'm being nostalgic in wanting to swap everything in my tank out into a 20 long. I've always loved the dimensions of that tank and feel like it would provide a lot more swimming room for my sixline wrasse especially. I'd also be saving hundreds of bucks which I'll probably end up spending on reefing equipment down the line anyhow.. I recently picked up an AI coral grow and liked the thing so much I ended up getting the glow as well! The lights are indeed kinda pricy but here I am considering picking up a third AI blade

Will likely need it if I do transfer everything into a 20 long.. Currently plagued with indecision! Not sure what kinda tank to really upgrade to. I'm drawn to AIOs because of modernity and simplicity but also am drawn to the idea of continuing a simple HOB reef tank. I do want something slightly bigger, something that allows for a little more rock work but I can't have anything over 30 gallons in my apartment!

This is two months of growth on a torch coral frag. How often do your torches grow out more heads?

Jan '24


Mar '24

 

[ralquist]

I used to have a 20gal long as a teenager. Was a little FOWLR system that I had going for almost 2 years. Had a regular old ocellaris clown, blue chromis and later added a royal gramma. Long story short, the royal gramma was diseased and ended up spreading it and killing the tank. My current fish are adopted from an established reef tank, they are healthy and were flourishing for almost a whole year prior to being put into my system. I chose not to quarantine them but going forward I will observe and quarantine as needed.

I think I'm being nostalgic in wanting to swap everything in my tank out into a 20 long. I've always loved the dimensions of that tank and feel like it would provide a lot more swimming room for my sixline wrasse especially. I'd also be saving hundreds of bucks which I'll probably end up spending on reefing equipment down the line anyhow.. I recently picked up an AI coral grow and liked the thing so much I ended up getting the glow as well! The lights are indeed kinda pricy but here I am considering picking up a third AI blade

Will likely need it if I do transfer everything into a 20 long.. Currently plagued with indecision! Not sure what kinda tank to really upgrade to. I'm drawn to AIOs because of modernity and simplicity but also am drawn to the idea of continuing a simple HOB reef tank. I do want something slightly bigger, something that allows for a little more rock work but I can't have anything over 30 gallons in my apartment!

This is two months of growth on a torch coral frag. How often do your torches grow out more heads?

Jan '23


Mar '23

If your max is 30 gallon for apartment living, I would get as darn close to that as you can! (If your maxed out then you won't be thinking about what you could have done!! LOL) But I also get cost can get pretty out of hand fast on anything! No experience with HOB filters with reef tanks, the AIO do eat up that space for your display and are more expensive. I don't envy your decision, that sucks! Whatever you decide on will be awesome!

Your torch is looking great, tissue looks very heathy can't get much more extension ! Yours looks like it was starting to split in the first pic, sec pic hard to tell but dang close to separate polyps/heads! I believe if happy and healthy they can start to split in 2/3 months having a separate mouth. Fully split, where you could frag takes quite a long time in my experience. Again I do a lot wrong so in another system I'm sure they can grow much faster. Mine have done significantly better in higher flow and par for growth.

 

[lil sumpin]

If your max is 30 gallon for apartment living, I would get as darn close to that as you can! (If your maxed out then you won't be thinking about what you could have done!! LOL) But I also get cost can get pretty out of hand fast on anything! No experience with HOB filters with reef tanks, the AIO do eat up that space for your display and are more expensive. I don't envy your decision, that sucks! Whatever you decide on will be awesome!

Your torch is looking great, tissue looks very heathy can't get much more extension ! Yours looks like it was starting to split in the first pic, sec pic hard to tell but dang close to separate polyps/heads! I believe if happy and healthy they can start to split in 2/3 months having a separate mouth. Fully split, where you could frag takes quite a long time in my experience. Again I do a lot wrong so in another system I'm sure they can grow much faster. Mine have done significantly better in higher flow and par for growth.

When I put up the second blade, I immediately ramped down the lights because I was sure the PAR would be much higher. Shortly after the first day, the torch excreted this stringy brown goop which I'm assuming is zooxanthellae and then closed up for a little. Read somewhere that changes in PAR and highly oxygenated water can cause these excretions to happen. Some folks also said it's torch coral poop and nothing to worry about? Decided to play it safe, I immediately ramped the lights down even more and am running them at around 30-40% now. None of my coral have very high light demand. I think I'm actually beginning to see more purple and pink coralline specks now that the light is a bit lower

 

[ralquist]

When I put up the second blade, I immediately ramped down the lights because I was sure the PAR would be much higher. Shortly after the first day, the torch excreted this stringy brown goop which I'm assuming is zooxanthellae and then closed up for a little. Read somewhere that changes in PAR and highly oxygenated water can cause these excretions to happen. Some folks also said it's torch coral poop and nothing to worry about? Decided to play it safe, I immediately ramped the lights down even more and am running them at around 30-40% now. None of my coral have very high light demand. I think I'm actually beginning to see more purple and pink coralline specks now that the light is a bit lower

I don't have any experience with the blades, I have herd they are quite powerful! With 2 blades on there I would think 30-40% would be more than enough! Def good call to ramp down to start low and gradually come up if needed at all. Mine took quite a while getting them to the par they are now at the top. Since you are in the process of shopping for a new tank I wouldn't mess with a par meter or anything, just a waste of money if your going to reset.
About the brown stringy stuff, I would agree that its most likely poop, have you witnessed it again? When the torch gets bigger also and you have a hard time telling how many heads you have you can try and count the brown strings, see how many heads/butts you have haha. Either way good call playing it safe, makes your wallet soar killing those! lol
Awesome news your getting more coralline, somethings working! Keep up the great work!!

 

[lil sumpin]

The blades are definitely powerful. A 3rd one on this cube would be overkill but I think three over a 20 long might just be the plan. I've not seen the torch 'poop' since lowering the output of the LEDs. If I recall correct, I saw my hammer coral excrete something very similar once months ago, stringy brown rope.

Got some vermetids on the zoas. I think I should probably just pinch them off next water change. There’s some hydroids near the sand bed. They’ve been in the tank a while. I took about 15-20 of the floaters all out at once with a baster a few weeks ago. There’s something very alien about those hydroids when they’re moving around in the column. Here’s to no crazy space invaders.

 

[lil sumpin]

After 6 weeks, I’ve started to notice the sixline wrasse harassing my clown goby. There are lots of nooks and crannies for the fish to post up in and they usually keep to themselves, the sixline is mostly surfing the glass attacking its reflection and the goby is hanging in and around the base of the toadstools. The goby will often swim up and perch on the top of the rocks but I have noticed when he swims lower on the rock, usually to graze on copepods, the wrasse creeps up behind and bullies him. Gonna continue to observe them and hopefully not see this behavior consistently, I’ve seen this happen 2-3 times in 6 weeks I’ve had them. The wrasse has very little interest in pellets, frozen and flake food. I often see him grazing on the rocks and glass so I wonder if it’s possible he can subsist fully on the pods. The clown goby devours whatever I throw into the tank. He has gotten a little more pudgy since I got him.

 

[lil sumpin]

The wrasse has claimed the tank! The goby is usually hiding in a nook or the largest toadstool. I think this behavior will likely be reset when I do a tank swap into something larger. I am looking to add 1 more fish when I size up to a 20 or 25 gallon, specifically a tail spot blenny

 

[lil sumpin]

We all have that one friend who cant sit still. It's actually been hard to get a good pic of the sixline

 

[nano7g]

Did your goby turn orange or is that the lighting?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Im thinking actually of getting AI blades. Im waiting till MACNA as that is when new stuff will possibly come out. Currently light does well for now. How do you like the blades so far? Any issue with heat or one side whiter than other?

 

[lil sumpin]

Did your goby turn orange or is that the lighting?

Must be the windex lighting